Hiromu Takahashi to miss six months due to torn pectoral muscle

Originally published at Hiromu Takahashi to miss six months due to torn pectoral muscle

NJPW has announced that IWGP junior heavyweight champion Hiromu Takahashi will miss approximately six months of action due to a torn left pectoral muscle.

Takahashi, 31, last wrestled on Friday and then missed Saturday’s show due to injury, although the company didn’t shed light on the severity until Monday.

He had won the IWGP junior heavyweight title at Wrestle Kingdom 15 from Taiji Ishimori and was set to defend the title this Sunday at Castle Attack against El Phantasmo. There has been no announcement regarding the status of the championship.

It’s another major injury for Takahashi, who suffered a broken neck during a July 2018 match with Dragon Lee and would not return to the ring until December 2019.

NJPW will hold another card at Korakuen Hall this Thursday followed by back-to-back nights at Osaka-jo Hall this Saturday & Sunday for Castle Attack.

They did an angle on today’s show where El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru stepped up to challenge El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori on Thursday, replacing Hiromu & BUSHI.

Really stinks to hear about Hiromu.

Damn. At least this wasn’t a life-threatening injury. As much as I was looking forward to El-P cheating his way to the title and having a wildly unhinged Hiromu chasing him, half a year of El-P waving the title at him from a distance, with Hiromu maybe coming back at the end of the G1 would set up a very hot comeback match.

Trying to find some upside in this…just utterly terrible situation…

There’s really no excuse for NJPW not to go with a heavy Despy push. After last year’s BOSJ, everyone is ready for it. ELP can make anyone look like a face next to him and Ishimori represents a good stepping stone for El Desperado to get to the title level before then. You have the ready story for him to finally get over the top at BOSJ and whether it’s before Dominion or perhaps the return of Summer Struggle, you can set up a big card-worthy Juniors match between the two and with the already simmering story between him and Hiromu, you’re looking at a build that could once again be the second from the top match at one of the two nights of WK.

In the meantime, SHO is a fresh contender for most of the division. YOH should be back soon. Douki has been looking refreshed. Maybe it’s a good time to call back Ren Narita? Does Lio Rush want to do a tour? And you gotta figure Dragon Lee and Robbie Eagles will be able to come back over soon. If those things can work out in some way, they’re actually in a pretty good position with the division still. I wonder how much that had to do with considering a Takahashi heavyweight run prior to this, but at least we get to see a preview of what it’ll look like once he’s moved on.

Waiting for this to be shipped…

Lio Rush has definitely shown an interest in working for NJPW in Japan.